Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has announced that it will launch a “luxury pavilion” for high-end products within its popular Tmall marketplace, Digidayreports. The launch of the portal, which should occur by the end of the year, is part of Alibaba’s plan to entice more brands to sell on its marketplace.

Only 21% of fashion labels currently have a store on Tmall, and Alibaba has longstruggledto attract luxury brands in particular. The company likely hopes that by separating luxury goods into their own portal, it can convince labels that selling on Tmall doesn’t cheapen their image. To heighten the feeling of exclusivity, Alibaba has enlisted machine learning that will make the luxury pavilion available only to those likely to make a luxury purchase.

Alibaba is also making new efforts to counter its image as a home for knockoffs.Kering, which owns several luxury brands including Gucci and Saint Laurent, has dropped its lawsuit against Alibaba and is instead teaming up with the Chinese e-commerce giant to fight counterfeit sellers, according toBloomberg. Alibaba has beentryingto combat its image as a home for counterfeit products, and efforts like this one could help convince other brands to sell on Tmall.

These moves are likely a response to JD.com’s focus on luxury goods and affluent consumers.JD.com, the second-largest e-commerce site in China, has beengrowingfaster than Alibaba of late. That is largely because of its focus on affluent consumers — JD.com has made a push to be the luxury destination for Chinese shoppers with its recentinvestmentin luxury e-retailer Farfetch, as well as the launch of a high-end deliveryservice. That could help the company rival Alibaba if it can effectively satisfy Chinese consumers'growinginterest in Western luxury goods. Alibaba wasrumoredto be interested in Yoox Net-A-Porter to help counter JD.com, but there's no deal on the table yet. It's possible the company is shifting its focus to battling JD.com in the luxury market on its own instead.